Many times during events taking place at environments such as sports stadiums, theaters, concert halls, the events are captured by a number of cameras placed at different locations to capture a different perspective of the event that is taking place. Some times the cameras are placed in the vicinity of the actual seating areas for the audience so that the content presented to the users is captured from the perspective of audience actually experiencing the event. For example during a sporting event such as a soccer game in a sports arena/stadium, multiple cameras are deployed at different locations, for example with one or more cameras close to the mid field position corresponding to the halfway line in the center of the field, one or more cameras close to each corner of the field and one or more cameras near the end lines of the field corresponding to the two goal post. Each of the deployed cameras capture content from the perspective of its camera position.
While the content captured from the perspective of each of the deployed cameras at their different respective camera positions is available, the decision to choose which content feed is to be shown to a viewer watching the video content is made by the broadcaster and/or producer not the by viewer. A broadcaster and/or producer may decide to present the video content feed communicating content captured by a camera at mid field position even though an actual may viewer may want to view the game from the perspective of another camera position, for example from the perspective of the cameras near the end line of the field corresponding to a goal post. Thus the control as to which video content feed is presented to a viewer at a given time lies with the content provider/broadcaster irrespective of the viewer's desire.
In view of the above discussion, it should be appreciated that there is a need for methods and/or apparatus which would allow a viewer to choose a viewing position in an environment based on the viewer's desire at the given time thereby allowing the viewer to select the perspective from which the viewer would like to experience the environment, e.g., as part of a 3D playback and/or viewing experience.